Usually it is a foreign military threat or the geopolitical position of a country that attracts the most attention as a factor to explain the emergence of the national security policies of small, neutral powers like the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland in the period 1900-1940. While these factors may explain the similarities between these small states, they fail to make clear why there were such great differences between them. The authors of this volume argue that the internal politics and the politico-military strategic cultures of the countries are vital keys to understanding their divergent reactions to similar, or at least comparable, foreign military threats: World War I and German expansionism in the second half of the 1930s.
The contributors are Maartje Abbenhuis, Michael Clemmesen, Kjeld Galster, Tom Kristiansen, Paul Moeyes, Williamson Murray, Michael Olsansky, Christian Paulin, Matthias Strohn, Anne Tjepkema, and Joost Vaessen.